The present invention relates to a hydrolysis unit with which amino-acid-containing specimens such as proteins, peptides and the like can be hydrolyzed to break down the speciments into their amino acids thereof, as well as to a method for hydrolyzing such specimens.
Amino acid analysis, i.e., determining the amino acid content of biological samples is widely practiced in biological research and biotechnology. It also is commonly utilized in forensics and in the food industry where it has importance in nutritional analysis of both human and animal foodstuffs. Generally, hydrolysis will be effected by contacting specimens with a hydrolyzing agent such as hydrochloric acid in the presence of heat to cause a protein or peptide to break down into its component amino acids.
In the hydrolysis operation, care must be exercised to avoid contamination and other adverse alteration of specimen character, particularly because a peptide, for example, which is being analyzed may constitute a presence of only a few nanograms so that loss of some such presence may be fatal to the desired analysis. Further, certain samples may not be replaceable so that an intended and needed analysis is not possible.
Contamination can occur for various reasons including improper washing of glassware, improper specimen handling, atmospheric dust as well as other causes. Also, the hydrolysis apparatus itself can cause contamination such as aluminum salts a common component in borosilicate glass hydrolysis vessels, can react with the specimen during hydrolysis. Presence of oxygen during high-temperature hydrolysis can denature or destroy amino acids, and this has led to the need to hydrolyze in a vacuum or inert atmosphere.
Another hazard is possible sample loss when specimens are handled and moved from a concentration operation to the hydrolysis operation.
Various apparatus and hydrolyzing techniques have been used heretofore, but these do not lend themselves in practice to simple, easily fulfilled hydrolyzing wherein maximized elimination of contamination is achieved. Nor due such prior techniques and apparatus represent ways to obtain higher temperature hydrolysis coupled with higher productivity, safety of operation and consistency of results as is thought desirable and which is made possible by the method and hydrolysis unit of the present invention.